this is Germany’s first antiracist media-watchdog, called “der braune mob”, looking for some developing aid for our society once again.

Similar to the German UNICEF campaign “Schools for Africa” in 2007, where white children were supposed to show solidarity to african children by sporting blackface, we have another recent case now which is taking German blackface advertising to a whole new level.

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Whenever animal rights activists compared the treatment of blacks to the abuse suffered by animals, I balked.

I was not alone. Many black folks find the comparison an insult. How dare you mention black people in the same sentence with fur or a chicken or a cow being led to slaughter.

It feels reductive to compare people to animals because…we are more than that. We can think. We can speak. We have feelings.

Was the first dehumanizing act of “mankind” to reduce animals to “things”, to set them beneath us, to claim that they are soul-less, emotionless tools granted by God – to provide us with their labor, their hides, their flesh?

Does that act run in a straight line to the domestication of women, to the enslavement of people of color, to the African and Jewish Holocausts (“Eternal Treblinka“), to all of the organized brutality man heaps upon man, woman, child and planet? Could it be that the seeds of global oppression, the idea of a hierarchical order that has the divine right to call the shots for the planet, sprouted once man claimed himself separate from and better than animals while claiming dominion over them?

This is not territory that I envisioned trodding. I’m the last nigga that believed in giving animals an even break if I gave any thought to animals at all. But today, at this moment, I see the unity of oppressions.

There is no question that the “spiritual vivisection” of humanity, begun by Plato and his cronies, their crazed belief in “rationality”, hierarchy, in the ‘philosopher king,” their cleaving of the brain from the body and spirit, their creation of a profane, analytic, abstractive monster (this according to Marimba Ani in her brilliant “Yurugu”)….this is why we are the way that we are.

We are the soul-less, conscienceless monster that we decry. Its not the shark that is vicious – it is you. It is not the black slave that is vicious – it is you. It is not the whore who deserves what’s coming to her – it is you. It is the culture and its people who make a folly of the Goddess’ handiwork, denigrating two and four legged creatures and the earth itself – before abusing and destroying it.

The prepubescent serial killer, the gangbanger, the Christian, genocidal President, the Marine rapist, the stockyards, the chicken plant, the Southern plantation are all part of the same continuum. Speciesm begat Sexism begat Racism begat begat begat.

Part of our challenge as people who classify themselves as human, is to see the connections between us and everything, particularly other living things. We are trained and we train ourselves to stay in our mental shoe boxes, support only those causes within the shoe box, leave our brains in a safety deposit box – in our shoe box. DO NOT THINK OUTSIDE OF THE SHOE BOX.

I don’t want to talk about sexism when we’re talking about racism…I don’t want (white) you changing the subject. But I need to be able to see the intersection of racism and sexism, need to see how women are played off against men, how “minorities” are set in competition with each other, unable to see who is manipulating them, see who is behind the curtain.

This “inability to see” to see the obvious relationship between all things is conditioned; the shutters are scientifically implanted from day one.

If one truly wants to be correct, the root of oppression, the first oppression that one can identify clearly is that of animals. The ability to separate ones’ feeling self from what’s between their fork and their knife, the ability to care about some life – but not all life, the ability to laugh at or laugh off the suffering of animals…It took a long time and a steady dose of serious indoctrination to make people dead to these connections.

That deadening and the “selective compassion’ that results, is why we sit on our hands as Iraqis are blown to pieces, or now blow themselves to pieces in rage, in despair at the barbaric treatment that they suffer. Its why Darfur is happening and nobody is doing anything about it. Its why Bush can steal two elections. We pretend we’re better than animals but we are not…We are simply the tamest, most domesticated, most brutally detached animals on the planet.

If you are a regular visitor to this blog you will know that I am not one to engage in blog wars. I have interceded to stop a couple and I will ignore what I consider a personal attack because of an opinion I may hold. I am quick to delete what I consider disrespectful and destructive comments. However, honest constructive criticism is always welcome.

I received a disturbing email via the AfroSpear googlegroup. This is a separate entity from this think tank, although it grew from our concept. There are approximately 100 members in the group. The email was penned by a Black blogger by the name of Francis L. Holland and it’s topic was the Blogging While Brown Conference, which was recently held in Atlanta , Georgia from July 25th to 27th. Although he did not attend the conference… Mr. Holland made some very inflammatory, destructive and disparaging comments about the conference, as well as disrespectful comments about the organizer, Gina McCauley at What About our Daughters. His comments were obviously motivated by his previous personal conflicts with Ms. McCauley via the googlegroup. I will not publish the entire email here, so as to provide Mr. Holland with a platform for his deranged rants, but I have to admit… it pissed me off. It pissed me off so much that I penned this reply through the googlegroup:

“Francis, Francis, Francis….

There are certain things which are constant in the universe. Day always follows night… everyday we get older… and any effort within the Afrosphere you cannot control, you try to sabotage. I rarely comment during these “flare ups” because I have come to see you as a petty, small-minded egomaniac, whom I felt it is best to ignore. I saw you as harmless… but I was mistaken… in a word… you are toxic. The Bible states that the devil should be “resisted”… not ignored.

What bothers me most now is that you continually hide behind the AfroSpear… a concept you originally were not involved in creating or establishing… as a vehicle to live out your warped, self-centered desire for control and attention. Recently, thefreeslave and I were discussing how the whole idea of the AfroSpear got high-jacked by you and others. For those who were there and haven’t forgotten the true history of the whole affair, you and a number of others, who weren’t down with the original vision of the AfroSpear, were encouraged (and supported) to form your own collective… which you all did. You formed the Afrosphere Bloggers Association asthe vehicleto realize your vision. However, you still decided to appropriate… I guess the true term is misappropriate, the Afrospear name and concept. To be honest, I had no real problem with it…. even when I read the bogus Wikipedia entry on the AfroSpear/AfroSphere, which you created. What is most dangerous about this entry is that it is sprinkled with some truth… however I notice how you have featured yourself prominently in it’s genesis, which in reality, you were not involved in on any significant level… while Sylvia, one of the original 6 and the person who did the most work in getting it up and running… who due to the petty jealousies of one former member in particular, wasn’t even mentioned!

Sylvia asked this very relevant question: “what are you trying to accomplish with this?”… in regards to your assessment of the Blogging While Brown conference… which you didn’t even attend!

It has become clear (for those who want to see it) that the primary motivation for your version of the AfroSpear, is not the upliftment or empowering of people of African descent. You are motivated by your unrequited “man-love”… your infatuation with Markos Maulitsas and his rejection of you… specifically his rejection of making you his official house nigger over at DailyKos.This is what motivates everything you do! That is why you constantly refer and compare any effort to DailyKos, as you did below when you stated: “Compare it to the 1,500 bloggers at YearlyKos last year…” I once wrote a post asking if you were symbolic of the 21st Century Mis-educated Negro. Time after time… by your antics, you have provided me with the answer. Let’s also be clear…. the reason Gina and a number of others resigned from your version of the AfroSpear, is that they got tired of the antics… the personal attacks and intimidation… by you and the other “school yard” bullies, against anyone who disagrees with y’all and/or who y’all cannot control.

So you have motivated me to do 3 things to “resist” the destructive and divisive objectives of you and your small group of cadres. 1… history is important… so I will be doing a post on the real genesis of the AfroSpear, to counteract your fable at Wikipedia. 2… I will make every effort to attend the Blogging While Brown conference next year… from Canada, as a show of the “true” AfroSpear’s support and solidarity with the efforts of Gina and the event. 3… I will be more vocal in exposing and opposing your destructive and divisive behaviours within the AfroSphere. As an original member of the original 6 who formed the original AfroSpear, you can neither intimidate nor control me.”

I’ve never seen or read the story Animal Farm by George Orwell. But it’s my understanding it’s the story about how farm animals are able to develop a community void of oppressive humans and how the pigs became the new oppressors of the farm. The pigs took on the most repulsive and oppressive characteristics of humans and actually became more human than anyone thought possible. In the vacuum left by the humans the pigs became humans. The moral of the story could be summarized to say that a community should have vigilance lest the absence of an oppressor could lead to an opportunity for someone or some group with a concealed desire for control or a latent superiority complex to become the oppressor.

There is a belief by some people that if the black community would simply take over the management of our more critical community resources such as schools, police, government, hospitals, and etcetera, then we would take a giant step in the right direction for retaking control of our destiny. It is natural to think that someone who shares our community values would share our community goals. However, problems come into play when people in the black community assume that just because someone shares our skin color that they would then share black community values and therefore share black community goals.

I am reminded of this phenomenon several times a day on a regular basis. The number of black people who vigorously support the status quo that maintains the disparity between the dominant community and the black community appears to grow exponentially on a daily basis. Black people who claim to have a love of self and of the black community are quick to abandon black people at the drop of a hat.

One concrete example of this phenomenon are the number of black people who say that they are proud of their brown skin but they just so happen to fall in love with a white person. In itself there is nothing wrong with dating or marrying a white person. But it is interesting to note that these black people refer to themselves as brown skinned but don’t refer to their significant other as peach or cream skinned. These people willfully sacrifice or downplay their link to their blackness but let the partner in life keep their link to their whiteness. Black people who have children with non black people run a greater risk of having their children identify with a non black community. It is my personal prejudice that black people who only date non black people may not be as committed to the future of the black community as they like to assert. If they did they would make having black children with strong black identities and black community affiliation a priority in their life.

Another example is the various black houses of worship that will have spiritual leaders that live in conditions separate from their flock. There are ministers, preachers, pastors, reverends, spiritual teachers, religious entrepreneurs, or whatever title is applicable, that will feel entitled to live rather lavishly in a series of palatial mansions that would rival Citizen Cane’s vision for Xanadu while members of their church are facing eviction from their most humble of dwellings. The prosperity doctrine says that if you live righteously and do your tithing religiously then you too will have the gift from god of material wealth. However, materialism and spiritualism are actually mutually exclusive. In fact, the love of money is supposed to be one of the most depraved sins in the bible. Yet, we all aspire to be the next pharaoh, living large and in charge, off the labor of others. The singular focus on the accumulation of personal wealth is not a community building activity, unless the goal is to build a community of paupers.

Regardless of how or why, there are too many instances of black community organizations, components, institutions, and situations that are led by black people that are not at all focused on the welfare of the black community. In the absence of a white skinned devil that takes advantage of the black community, many of us will rise to the occasion to become the black skinned devil that will seek to subjugate others in the black community. And unfortunately, like most things that exist at our level of understanding, it is far easier to feel the repercussions from the negative effects more so than the positive ones.

The person looking to be the leadership of the black community will appeal to black people’s collective ego and work on our insecurities and will promise to work hard to restore our self worth and take away all of our social problems will undoubtedly be appointed as the leader of our community. These black leaders promise to have all the solutions to our problems. Unfortunately, it never crosses anybody’s mind that the charismatic person at the front of the crowd doesn’t have much experience being the person at the rear most people ignore. The problems are hardly the same from these two extremes. But somehow, we are sold a poor fitting bill of goods that says one solution will fit all. How many times do we have to hear that the system worked for some high profile black person and therefore it must be fair? It’s fair despite the fact that for every high profile person there are thousands of people at the other end of the spectrum.

A lot of high profile black people make fine examples of the problem with the alleged leadership in the black community. It is a fact that many so called black leaders are actually people that the dominant community promotes as black leaders who are in fact working to undermine the black community. These people have thrived in this environment of disparity and are more apt to argue that the status quo must be maintained. These are the type of black leaders who distance themselves from the black community when black leadership can be most effective. These black people will stand in front of the dominant culture and say something to the effect that they are not the average black person but a fellow member of the dominant class that is not identified by race but happens to take virtually all operating procedures from the predominantly white culture. Black people will do better if black people will just do better. Pick yourself up by your bootstrap. Get good grades and get a job and you too will distance yourself from the black community. The key to the good life is kicking blackness to the curb.

Conversely, the black person who sees that something is wrong in the black community but is honest enough to say that they don’t know all the problems and certainly don’t have all the answers is dismissed as nothing but a complainer with a victim mentality unwilling or unable to do the work necessary to resuscitate the black community. Without a grand master plan that rescues us all, this person is not seen as a black community asset but just another lost soul looking for personal relief. We have been conditioned to think the solution to centuries of oppression and subjugation by a dominant culture that controls every aspect of life including, but not limited to, government, entertainment, law enforcement, manufacturing, banking, financing, travel, distribution, education, employment, and justice can be solved in a paragraph or two, or with a charismatic individual who can stroke people’s egos.

But the bottom line is that it will take all the black people who truly care about the welfare of the black community to come together to repair the black community. In the history of the African American the dominant culture never gave our ancestors and elders anything without a hard fought fight. Black people stood in unity when they fought for civil rights and the right to vote. Why we can’t figure out the unity factor now is beyond me. The psychological programming that keeps black people divided runs deep. I’m not saying I or any other single person have all the answers. I believe that we all have a small piece of the answer. Only when we bring those pieces together will we once again take control of our destiny.

We can leave the welfare of the black community to charismatic black leaders who promise nothing but we believe can change things for the black community simply because they exist. But don’t be surprised when you see the black leader personally gaining and gaining large. And before you know it nothing will change. Before our very eyes these leaders evolve into the very devils that we have come to know so well. If we want change we all must do our part to recognize the need, come together to deliver ideals and develop a plan, and then work together to assure that the plan comes to fruition.

Too often people say that it is somebody else’s job to develop the plan or it’s somebody else’s job to develop concepts of racial equality or that it is somebody else’s job to make sure that whoever steps to the plate to be the spokesperson of the black community is kept on the up and up. It is all too easy to sit back and say that somebody else should do it. But until we all roll up our sleeves and make the choice to take an active role in spreading awareness, identifying the issues that are most disastrous and dangerous to the black community in general, until we all contribute to the development of plans at the neighborhood level, community level, and every level all the way up to the national level, the black community will never experience anything resembling equality or self determination. Until will all step up to the plate we will repeat the mistakes just like the characters in Animal Farm.

How many times have we doubted in ourselves, our presence, our value and competence?

For how many years have we longed for recognition and respect?

Now the time has come to make a change, to take our destiny and that of our children and generations after us in our hands.

Time has come for us to redefine ourselves and to position issue affecting us on the European angenda.

Time has come to start being ourselves thereby creating an identity for us and our children and grandchildren.

We are daring the move.

We are ready to collectively position ourselves on the landmape of Europe.

Lets meet together in Brusels on September 9th 2008 to officially launch the Black European Women’s Council and the Vienna Declaration of Black European Women, adoted at the 1st Black European Women’s Congress, marking the European Year of Equal Opportunitie for All 2007, under the Initiative of Beatrice Achaleke (AFRA- International Center for Black Women’s Perspectives, www.blackwomencenter.org ) and co-organised by Hellen Felter (Tiye International).

Join us in this historical moment. Register now and and spread this information to other black women around you who maybe interested in being part of this political agenda to address issues affecting Black European communties.

I am so exciting looking forward to meeting and sharign with you again in Brussels:

the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc;

a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision or ridicule;

a branch of literature consisting such works.

I can’t remember ever buying a copy of The New Yorker magazine. In the past, I believe I may have read an article or two in a bookstore. Last week during the frenzy surrounding this week’s cover featuring Barack and Michelle… after I had a good laugh… I decided to wait until the magazine came out and go through it myself before making any comment. I read and heard a lot of opinions against the cover before the magazine hit the stands. An opinion is good. An informed opinion is better. (Interestingly enough, I heard and read very little in support of what the artist of the cover, Barry Blitt… and the editors of the magazine were actually depicting: “the grotesque pack of lies about the Obamas”).

So yesterday I headed to Chapters bookstore and perused a copy. I went through it from cover to cover… twice… and decided I didn’t need to buy it. The only article in it which interested me I had already read online: “Making It: How Chicago Shaped Obama”. This somewhat scathing in-depth report by Ryan Lizza, documents Obama’s political maturation via the harsh political landscape of Chicago. It is more certainly damaging to his messianic image than the cover. I now understand how calculating of a chameleon… sorry, I mean magician… sorry, I mean politician he really is. I would bet my house that 99.9% of the people who were up in arms about the cover, who regurgitated some opinion on it… a satirical caricature of the false information and fantastical lies the so-called “right-wing” forces in America are spreading about Barack and Michelle… I would bet that they have not taken the time to look at a copy of this week’s magazine, much less read this article.

I read somewhere that the North American media: print, electronic and visual, are produced at a level to cater to those with a grade nine education. Now I don’t know if this is true or not, but most of the opinions that I read and heard in regards to The New Yorker cover, were juvenile to say the least. What I found interesting was that the commenters… all of whom would be considered intelligent men and women… certainly had more than a grade nine education. I would even venture to say much more. However, it seemed that their intelligence was conditioned to regress to a grade nine level, when it came to understanding the point the cover was making… through satire!

“Yeah Asa, but what about those rednecks or those who are not so sophisticated to understand the satire of this elitist magazine… who will get a glimpse of the cover and believe that Barack and Michelle are flag burning, fist bumping radicals?”

I say that I understand why in American society, this appears to be a legitimate concern. In a culture of ignorance, image is everything. In a culture of ignorance, impact supersedes intent. In a culture of ignorance, the working principle is “just tell me… better yet, show me… what I need to believe”. In a culture of ignorance, there is no time to delve deeper. In a culture of ignorance, there is no desire to analyze subtleties. In a culture of ignorance, there is no benefit in questioning what one is told to see as reality.

I say that someone has to be pretty ignorant to be influenced by a satirical image on a magazine cover to believe (or confirm) that Barack is an America-hating, Osama bin Ladin loving, Al Qaeda supporting Muslim… and Michelle is also an American hating, Angela Davis afro wearing, 60’s type Black Panther revolutionary. I also say that someone has to be just as ignorant to believe that the magazine was trying to use this satirical image to subconsciously plant in the American publics mind that Barack is an America-hating, Osama bin Ladin loving, Al Qaeda supporting Muslim… and Michelle is also an American-hating, Angela Davis afro wearing, 60’s type Black Panther revolutionary.

The real issue is that Obama has become a demi-god among his supporters and a large section of the media. It is to be understood that he is untouchable. The unwritten rule is that he is not to be the subject of negative, or what is perceived to be potentially negative, scrutiny, portrayals nor jokes! He has come to embody what we have come to associate with the stereotypical, tyrannical African (Black) leader with a cult-like personality. He has become Mugabe-esque. Those who oppose him are attacked by his militias of intelligentsia… who are not armed with machetes, clubs and bricks… but utilize their pens… (I guess “keyboards” would be a more appropriate depiction)… and other media images, to agitate the lowest denominator of their constituency’s intelligence, to deem that any opposition is based on racists and right-wing reactionary agendas. If you are Black, then you are demonized and refered to as one or a combination of the following: a CIA trained operative/agitator, a Republican, an Uncle Tom, an Aunt Jemima, a House Negro or Negress, a traitor to the race with a “crab in a barrel mentality”. The tactics of the so-called “progressive” left to stifle any opposition appear to be very similar to the tactics employed by the so-called “reactionary” right. Melvin Bray has written an interesting piece, highlighting that democracy is well served by the freedom to satirize it’s leaders: “Another Look at The New Yorker’s Obama Cartoon”.

The overall result of this controversy has been to Obama’s advantage. The majority of people, particularly his supporters and potential supporters, will boycott the magazine and will therefore miss the enlightening article by Ryan Lizza. The illusion of Obama’s image, as an agent of “change” politics, will remain intact. (Interestingly, Mr. Lizza was banned from the press corps accompanying Obama on his current tour of the Middle East).

An intelligent response to the controversy by Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor of the New Yorker: “Take Cover”.